Feed Your Inner Ghoul: Five Comics for Halloween

There are lots of great comics and graphic novels out there that will make for a creepy Halloween season. If you are like me–and dig monsters, scary movies, and all things Halloween–you’ll be looking for some good reading material to help get your spook on. Check out these comics for Halloween fun, and a few scares.

This graphic novel starts simply enough with a teenager trying to fit in at school and ends up falling down an old well. While stuck in the weli, she shows a spirit some kindness. The rest of the book follows that saying “no good deed goes unpunished.” The simple and expressive art style lends itself to the subtle and not so subtle changes that happen in Anya’s life.

This volume collects all of Gary Gianni’s Monstermen occult detective series: Silent as the Grave, Autopsy in B-Flat, A Gift for the Wicked, The Skull and the Snowman, and O Sinner Beneath Us. These stories are filled with wild characters like a guy with a dinosaur melded into this cranium, zombie cowboys, betentacled pirates, shrouded figures, and your hero is always in a knight’s helmet– wow, it just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Gianni’s art is classic illustrative style and works perfectly for the rest of the stories in the collection.

So wow, Nailbiter. It is one of my favorite releases in 2014. Just when you think that serial killers are possibly over-played, here comes a story with a new and interesting spin on typical fodder for horror and thriller media. Meet the Buckaroo Butchers, a group of the world’s worst serial killers that all hail from the same small town. What can go wrong in this tale? Just about everything. I wish the best of luck to Sheriff Crane and the citizens of Buckaroo to get out of this predicament intact. With art that truly captures the moment, this book is a must for any horror fan.

Steve Niles has been creating all sorts of horror stories throughout his comic writing career. With The October Faction he takes on one of my favorite tropes, the creepy family. With only one issue available, it’s not clear yet what the overall arc of the story will be. But the characters we’ve met so far are intriguing, if not creepy and kooky. Keep an eye on this title from Niles and artist Damien Worm.

Locke & Key by Joe Hill (IDW 2009)

In 2009, Locke & Key became a modern classic and one of the most well received comics ever. Welcome to Lovecraft kicked off an intense story about the Locke family moving into a new home, Keyhouse , in an appropriately atmospheric New England town. After a deranged student kills their father, Bode, Kinsey, and Tyler try to rebuild a new life with their mother. What they uncover about the Keyhouse will mess with their heads, literally. This work of dark fantasy and horror is exceptionally compelling and will have readers hooked immediately. The final trade paperback, Alpha & Omega Volume 6, was just released. Get all six if you want to hunker down under the covers with some hot cocoa on Halloween night.

Adrienne is a regular consumer of speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror content--with the occasional costume drama thrown in for good measure. She resides in the Seattle metro-area and is all too often relaxing at home with champagne cocktails, a stack of comic books, and her trusted canine companion by her side.